Kaleidoscope of Consequences

By April Marie Libs

GINA COULD NEVER seem to step out of her older sister’s shadow, which is Gina’s opinion was more beautiful, more likeable, and more dynamic than she was. Throughout her adolescent years, Gina fought against her feelings of being inferior, boxed away the slivers of jealousy that peeked out when she least expected it to, until one day, after graduating from college, the one man her sister coveted more than anyone, began paying her attention. Feeling that she was finally getting the recognition that she deserved, Gina is torn between the unexpected lust she feels for her sister’s fiancé and making the morally right decision.

• Language: English
• Publisher: April Marie Libs
• Release date: Sep 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370827848

April Marie Libs

Specializing in woman’s fiction, April Marie’s novels are a mix of romance, with a twist of drama, that will keep the reader on the edge of her seat until the last page is turned. As a writer, April thrives on leading her reader down the traditional path, and then loves to throw an unexpected curve into the road, making her reader’s jaw drop open in surprise. Her readers love her quick dialogue, unpredictable plots, and special connection she forms between her characters. April Marie’s first novel, Bridge to Destiny, debuted in 2014. She has release six new novels since. April Marie Libs received her Journalism degree from Ball State University and currently resides in southern Indiana with her husband, and three teenagers; she enjoys traveling, writing, and reading. You can contact April at her email: [e-mail]; web address: www.aprilmarielibs.com, or Twitter: @aprilmarielibs.

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Kaleidoscope

Of Consequences

APRIL MARIE LIBS

DEDICATION

I'd like to dedicate this book to my eldest daughter, Haley, who will be heading off to college very soon. Her perseverance, her wit, and her charm will be missed dearly in my life. I don't look forward to missing her each and every day, but I do look forward to watching her grow and develop into the beautiful, self-assured, talented young woman that she is becoming. I know parents are not supposed to love their daughter like a best friend, but I absolutely do, and I will miss her more than she will ever know.

Kaleidoscope of Consequences

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, or by any information retrieval and storage system without permission by the publisher.

Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination, or are used in fictitious situations. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, incidents, or persons - living or dead - are coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you for reading Kaleidoscope of Consequences. First, I'd like to start off with a load of gratitude to my mom, Laverne Ernstberger, and my mom-in-law, Betty Libs. This book delves into the art of mothering. These two women have given me countless ways to be a good mother by the example they set for their children and grandchildren. I hope and pray one day my kids will look upon me with the respect and love I feel for the two of them. My friends, Lisa Kaelin, Alysia Wade and Dawn Durbin, and sisters, Tracy Oppelt and Jill Finnegan, I owe another debt of gratitude as well, for being my first response team when it comes to anything to do with my writing, whether it be storylines, editing, or cover design. They never cease to drop what they are doing and give me their undivided attention.

DEDICATION

My husband, Mike, I will always be grateful for. He is my rock, my stability, my forever best friend. There is no one on this planet that I'd rather walk this path with. I am so incredibly thankful God chose him as my soulmate, and I look forward to all the years to come with him by my side throughout whatever life has to offer.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Epilogue

The Eleventh Hour

Other books

Prologue

GINA FELT LIKE she had been eerily transported to another planet. Hesitantly, she glanced around and found herself enveloped in a luscious landscape brimming with emerald greens and soft ocean blues. She soaked in the visual paradise of statuesque trees covered in flowering buds in varying shades of lilac as a cluster of petite humming birds sputtered in the air above. Gina's mind drifted as she watched the birds soar upward in a uniform pattern before performing a perfect figure eight above her head.

What is this place? Why am I here?

Gina wandered through the thick soft grass, unbending under the weight of her bare feet, her skirt billowing in the gentle breeze behind her. A sweet, sugary scent wafted through the air, making her stomach answer its call with a growl. Across the green-carpeted valley, Gina noticed an alluring tree flushed with perfectly-shaped, shiny ripe apples. She ambled over, plucking a red apple from the crooked branch and held it in the palm of her hand, her mouth watering with need to sink her teeth into the crunchy covering of its peel. She inhaled deeply, pulling the sweet fragrance of the fruit into her nostrils and held it there. Running her thumb over the smooth texture, she contemplated taking a bite, but realized the fruit tree didn't belong to her so she lowered her hand, ready to drop the forbidden apple onto the damp ground, but Gina's desire outweighed her conscious, and she shoved the fruit into her mouth, engulfing it with her need.

She chewed slowly, wanting to savor the taste as the apple’s sweet juice swam throughout her parched mouth, until she felt something move against the palm of her hand. Trepidation shivered through her as she glanced down to see the inner remains of the apple crawling with slimy maggots and clammy grubs.

Her eyes bulged as she coughed and gagged, ditching the unwanted fruit from her clutched fingertips. She bent at the waist, attempting to expel the fruit from her mouth, but a piece of apple had embedded in her throat, blocking her oxygen flow. She clutched her neck, desperately heaving for air, as the murky creatures slithered down the confines of her cramped airway path.

Thrashing in bed, Gina pulled herself out of her deep, tormented slumber and shuddered at the recollection of her nightmare in the privacy of her own bedroom. She shook her head to clear her thoughts as a droplet of perspiration trickled down from her temple. As she sat up in bed, pushing her sticky hair from her forehead, she analyzed the dream, and knew immediately what it symbolized.

After changing out of her sodden, silk nightgown into an oversized gray cotton t-shirt, Gina trudged to the bathroom to splash cool water on her face. Staring at her reflection in the oval mirror, she watched beads of water seep down the slope of her nose and over the curvature of her lips, toward the hollow above her chin. She glanced back up into the hazel eyes of the reflection, and barely recognized the person staring back at her.

As she lumbered back to bed, Gina flipped the pillow over to the dry side as she dissected the past thirty days, contemplating how her problems got started in the first place. She racked her brain, trying to assemble how she got herself into this colossal quandary that had taken over her entire existence, from her once close-knit family, to her lifelong friendships from grade school, to the dream job she worked so hard for.

As Gina tossed onto her side, jamming a pillow between her knees, she dove into her memory, wondering, where did it all begin? Was it the eye contact that lasted more than the proper snippet of time? The hand that brushed her behind before pulling out of an embrace? Or maybe, the unseen whispers that sent shivers shooting down her spine?

Gina wasn't sure which interaction tipped the ball to start rolling down the precarious hill toward infidelity. Nor, did she know the answer to the most important question of all...

When did she decide to step over that shady line of simple flirtation and take a bite of the forbidden fruit by sleeping with her sister's fiancé?

Chapter One

FOR AS LONG as she could remember, no matter how well Gina did in life, the limelight always seemed to shift to her older sister. If she was awarded first honors on her report card, her sister, Piper, trumped her with principle's list. If she won the second place blue-ribbon in the science fair, her sister came home sporting the first place trophy. If Gina made the Academic Olympic team, Piper was nominated captain. The list could go on and on.

Gina could trace this pattern all the way back to their birth, when her parents chose a unique, special name for their first born daughter, Piper Sage Wilkinson. When she came along only a year and a half later, the only thing they could up with was Gina Maria.

Really? How boring is that? Couldn't her parents have come up with something better than plain old Gina? Did they have a premonition that Piper was destined to become someone amazing, and their second born was doomed to live in the aftermath of her shadows?

Gina often wondered how God could have put two totally different children in the same family; one petite with silk-like strawberry hair, flawless olive complexion, and a sprinkling of light freckles across her tiny button nose. The other, with dirty blonde hair and acne problems, who grew a head taller than the rest of her class and always battled with her weight. Why would He do that? It just didn't make sense. Adoption. That was the only logical explanation as to why Gina and her older brother looked like twins, but the child in between resembled a blush-colored rosebud sitting among carnations.

As a child of about six, Gina could remember standing on a footstool staring into the bathroom mirror comparing her reflection to her sister's, knowing that she came up short in every way possible, from the shape of her face, to the size of her nose, to the lack of freckles that everyone adored. Clamoring off the stool, Gina opened her mother's makeup drawer, rummaging through the tubes and compacts until she found what she was searching for. Stepping back up onto her perch, she leaned her stomach against the counter as she blotted several globs of concealer onto her blotchy cheeks and nose. Rubbing it over her entire face with the pads of her fingertips, Gina attempted to make her skin look alabaster and blemish-free, like her sister's. Reaching for the eyebrow pencil, she then dotted her now ivory nose and cheeks with chocolate liner, filling the area completely with various sized speckles.

Satisfied that she now appeared more like her sister, Gina jumped off the stool and skipped into the living room where the rest of the family was watching television. After taking one look at her, they began laughing hysterically and couldn't stop. Gina stood frozen in their ridicule until her brother, doubled over from his laughter, shot out, And I thought you were ugly before...

Gina sprinted up to her room sobbing from humiliation, slammed the door as hard as she could before catapulting herself onto her bed, smearing the brown makeup across her pink bedspread. She bawled so hard, she felt like her lungs were going to explode right out of her chest, until she heard her mother tap her fingernail on the outside of her bedroom door, asking softly, Gina, honey, can I come in?

No! Gina barked.

Since her parents didn't believe children should have locks on their door, she peeked her head in anyway and said, I just wanted to say that I'm sorry.

When Gina didn't reply, her mother strolled over to the bed, perched on the edge, and rubbed her back while she spoke. That was inconsiderate and rude of me to laugh, and I promise you, it will never happen again, she said, then paused before adding, it's just that you threw me off-guard. I wasn't prepared and I handled it inappropriately. I was wrong, way wrong, and I hope you will forgive me.

It's okay. Gina sniffed into the crease of her folded arms.

Prodding her to flip onto her back, her mother withdrew a tissue from her pocket, and gently wiped her daughter's face. So, do you want to tell me what all this was about?

Pushing her hand away, Gina flung herself onto her side, trying to keep the flood gate closed on her tear ducts and answered her through jagged breaths of air. It's just that Piper looks so... so different and pretty, and I just look... dumb.

Her mom smoothed her hand down Gina's mass of mousy-colored hair. You are equally as beautiful as your sister, sweetheart. When her daughter didn't respond to her statement, she asked, Do you believe me, Gina?

Even though Gina knew her mother was just trying to pacify her, and that all mothers would tell their children the exact same thing, she answered yes, just to get her to leave her room.

Gina stayed hidden in the safety of her bedroom for the rest of the afternoon until she heard a light rap on the door sometime before dinner. Scrambling to keep the door from opening, she pressed her back against it to hold it in place, yelling, Don't come in!

I wasn't going to, Piper hissed.

Good! she bit back.

Piper sighed. I just wanted to see if you were hungry. I can bring a dinner plate up here, if you want me to.

That was classic Piper, always taking the high road, which made Gina feel even worse. Hoping to get her sister to leave so she could wallow in her self-pity alone, Gina fibbed, Nah, that's okay. I'm not that hungry anyway.

Can I ask you a question?

Gina squeezed her eyes shut, knowing what was coming next, and mumbled, I guess so.

Why would you want to look like me? Piper asked in wonderment. I stick out everywhere I go.

Gina wanted to tell her sister, that is exactly want she wanted, to be able to stand out in a crowd for once in her life, but what she actually said was, I'll come out when I get hungry.

AT ONE POINT in grade school, Gina decided that if her parents wouldn't provide her with the appropriate name that fit the fascinating person she was planning on becoming, she would have to take matters into her own hands. After coming up with a way to alter her name without changing it, she began signing all her papers, Jina, with a loopy, fancy J stroke at the beginning. At the time, Gina felt that this spelling appeared more seasoned and sophisticated, more like a famous movie starlet. This helped with her mental self-confidence, until all the kids in her class found out what she was doing and started calling her, Gina with a J.

If the teacher asked who wanted to be hall monitor, some smart-aleck boy from the back would yell out, Why don't you ask Gina with a J? Or at recess, when the girls were accused of stealing the kindergartener's kickball, they pointed their finger at Gina, spouting, Gina with a J did it, not us. At one point, her teacher even used the nickname when calling out attendance, making the entire class laugh so hard they had to be threatened with detentions if they didn't quiet down. Needless to say, before the end of the school year had even arrived, Gina went back to just being the boring, mundane, Gina with a G she was born to be.

While Gina was being chastised and ignored throughout early grade school, Piper, on the other hand, was put on a pedestal for the popular, with the girls admiring her sweet, cheerful disposition, and the boys idolizing her adorable, American Girl doll appearance. Gina loathed the fact that her sister had friends by the bucketful, while she was wandering through school alone, so she made sure that Piper knew that she was not one of her groupies, always scornfully rejecting her in the hallways and snubbing her in the lunchroom. But by the fifth grade, Gina had finally decided to stop bucking the system. Since all the other kids in school were enamored with her sister, she decided she was going to be as well. Why should she flail against the current, when she could float right along with it instead?

At home, Gina started following Piper around the house, lounging beside her as she watched American Idol, hanging out in her room while she surfed the Internet, and sleeping on her floor whenever she didn't have plans on the weekends. At school Gina tried to do the same, but Piper's friends were a thorn in her side that slashed through her plans, making sure Piper stayed away from her annoying brat of a sister.

Coming up with Plan B, Gina began gathering information on what Piper's friends did, at what time, and with whom, plotting and strategizing on how, and when, she would infiltrate their group. At first Piper's friends didn't seem to notice her, which worked out well, because Gina could get so close, she could actually hear their conversations. Then one day in the lunchroom, while pretending to pick up trash on the floor by their table, listening to what they did at Mary Kate's sleepover on Saturday night, one of Piper's friends busted her plan wide open.

O-M-G! Your sister's eavesdropping on us again, Piper! Taylor spat as she rolled her eyes exaggeratedly.

Maci followed suit. Really, Piper, you need get that brat to stop being such a leach before she regurgitates something that she wasn't supposed to hear in the first place.

Gina felt that the time had come to permeate their defenses. She saw a crack in the exterior wall and she was going in. Pulling in a deep breath of courage, Gina slid onto the metal bench, crossing her arms on top of the table.

It's a little late for that, don't ya think? Gina threw out with a superior glint in her eye, challenging Maci.

Piper glanced around skittishly and then whispered harshly, Gina, what are you doing? Get out of here and go back to your own table.

Gina shrugged her shoulders, making her overly-starched white uniform blouse rustle. I just thought you guys would want me here with you, so I don't accidentally blab all the stuff I know to the entire school.

Narrowing her eyes, Taylor spit, Like what?

Nonchalantly, Gina dropped the grenades she had been collecting for the past two months. Well, for starters, Taylor, I doubt you want the whole junior high to know that you smoke your brother's weed every weekend. She pointed to Danielle. "And I bet you don't want anyone to know your cousin hacked into the school's computer system and changed all your grades last semester, and, Maci, I highly doubt you want everyone to hear you went down on Brad Mastings last month behind the boys locker room."

Gina watched as all four girls' mouths gaped open in mortification.

I can go on, if you want me to, she said as she attempted to withhold her smug grin.

After her eyes darted to each person at the table, Piper spoke for the rest of the group. "You can eat lunch at our table from now on as long as you never breathe a word of what you just said to anyone."

Taylor piped in with her stipulations. "But you can't speak to anyone in the group, unless you're spoken to first. Always make sure to walk at least five steps behind us, and never, ever look us in the eyes. Is that understood?"

And this is how Gina manipulated her way into Piper's group of friends. They made it extremely tough for her. She was literally their slave for the first year, doing each and every thing they said with a smile plastered on her face, but gradually, she was accepted as an equal into their inner sanctum. And since Piper and her friends took Gina under their wing, the rest of the school followed suit, and the next three years of grade school were a piece of cake.

Being with her sister twenty-four hours a day changed Gina's relationship with Piper as well. What was once a fractured bond between two siblings putting up with one other because they lived under the same roof, blossomed into a friendship filled with trust and compassion, anchored on a deep rooted connection that grew stronger with each passing year.

Gina felt the first hiccup in the friendship with her sister during her freshman year of high school. That spring, both had decided to audition for the school play, The Wizard of OZ, with Piper trying out for the part of Glenda the Good Witch, and Gina for the role of Dorothy. Gina was determined to win the part of Dorothy, even if it meant shoving her schoolwork to the side so she could be thoroughly prepared for the audition. A month before the casting call for the main characters, Gina rehearsed her lines for two hours each day as she paced the carpeted floor in her bedroom, leaving a matted pathway from the door to the nightstand. Once she had the lines memorized, Gina moved into the bathroom to practice her facial expressions while repeating the lines in front of the mirror, making sure to articulate the words correctly in each sentence. To get into character the week before the auditions, she wore her hair in pigtail braids every day while she secretly hauled around a stuffed Toto dog in her backpack, and for the reading in front of the judges, Gina made her mom sew her an exact replica of Dorothy's blue-and-white checkered dress.

Gina's spirits were flying high after her audition because at the exact moment she finished her last line, the theatre director jotted something down on his clipboard. She just knew he was writing her name under the Dorothy character to remind himself that he had filled the role, and could now concentrate on casting the other parts in the play.

As Piper sped to school the next morning, they were both a nervous wreck, each wanting the roles they felt were hand-tailored for them. After Piper sandwiched her bug between two dilapidated Chevys, they cupped their hands in front of the air vents to dry off their sweaty palms before swinging open their car doors.

When Gina and Piper reached the hallway outside the auditorium, they found a crowd two feet deep huddled around the bulletin board where the cast list was posted, some girls squealing in excitement after reading the list, some boys high-fiving congratulations, while others drifted away with their chins tucked in defeat. Seeing the differential in behavior made Gina's heart race and her stomach do nauseating summersaults.

After jogging down the hallway together, Piper and Gina split, attempting to wiggle their way up to the casting board separately. As Gina shimmied through the crowd, elation rose up within her, thinking that finally, it was her time to shine. She could envision standing on stage, the blinding spotlight finding her as all eyes swiveled in her direction, riveted to her every move. The applause... she could almost feel it ripple over her as she bowed humbly while embracing pink long-stemmed roses in the crook of her arm.

Blinking back her fantasy, Gina pushed and shoved, jockeying for position, threading between multi-sized bodies, making her way to the front of the crowd. Once she reached the bulletin board, her eyes rapidly scanned the list, ready to do her victory dance, when she had to reread it a second time, not believing with her own eyes as to what it had revealed. When Gina read the list for a third time, her breath lodged in the back of her throat and tears stung her eyes when she realized she wasn't seeing a horrifying mirage.

The role of Dorothy had been awarded to, none other than, her sister, Piper.

Wait... What? She didn't even try out for that role! How could this happen?